


dust in a moment

by spectrespecs



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Both figuratively and literally, Fluff, M/M, because they are dust bunnies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26091697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spectrespecs/pseuds/spectrespecs
Summary: Yes, life is easy—for the most part—for the two dust bunnies that call the top of the cabinet home. Shiro and Keith found each other in the darkness long ago, and they’ve been inseparable since. There have been a few close calls where an errant breeze has almost sent one tumbling off the cabinet, but the other is always swiftly behind ready to grab and push the other back up.Or, Shiro and Keith are dust bunnies.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 59





	dust in a moment

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Cursed Sheith Week 2020](https://twitter.com/cursedsheith): Day 4 Prompt, Inanimate Objects
> 
> This is somewhere between soft and cursed, which is now my own personal brand of cursed.
> 
> Title from [Super Collider](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iFS22yyXj8) by Radiohead, because it made me laugh to do.

It’s a sweet and simple life.

Every morning, the sun rises, and its warm light perfectly streams through the window to slowly bathe the kitchen in a soft glow. One of the last places the light touches is the very top of the high china cabinet that sits against the wall furthest from the sun’s light, but when it reaches that dark space, the rays rouse Keith and Shiro from their sleep.

Yes, life is easy—for the most part—for the two dust bunnies that call the top of the cabinet home. They found each other in the darkness long ago, and they’ve been inseparable since. There have been a few close calls where an errant breeze has almost sent one tumbling off the cabinet, but the other is always swiftly behind ready to grab and push the other back up.

“You saved me,” Shiro had whispered in awe at Keith the time that the kitchen window had been left open during a storm. The humans who owned the house had rushed to close it, but a sudden gale made its way into the room and Shiro had come close to being knocked off the edge. Keith had maneuvered in the wind and managed to block Shiro from falling off, and in the aftermath of the most frightening thing the two had experienced in their dust bunny lives, they had clung to each other tightly. 

“We saved each other,” Keith had muttered softly in response. It was true. Keith used to prefer to stay in the one corner up on the cabinet where the light rarely strayed, accepting that he was just another forgotten thing in the world.

But Shiro made him stop believing that. Shiro would tell him to use the little shifts in the air that would filter through the kitchen to help move around, and Keith would stubbornly not listen to him, doing everything in his dust bunny power to stay in place. But one day, Keith woke up and saw that Shiro had made his way to the exact place where the morning light was hitting the cabinet. There was a little white tuft of something that was always sticking out of the top of Shiro, and it caught surprisingly beautifully in the light. Keith thought that Shiro looked stunning, but not only that, he seemed so comfortable in himself and simply enjoying his life. 

Keith waited, wishing and hoping some light air disturbance would move through their ignored space that would allow him to drift over to Shiro. When it finally did happen, Keith shakily skidded over to Shiro, bumping into him in the process.

“Oh!” Shiro had exclaimed. “Good morning.” Shiro greeted Keith happily and didn’t make any comment about why Keith finally decided to leave his little corner, just readily welcomed him into the morning. Keith was thankful for that.

So, yes, Keith was beyond content with his little life up on the china cabinet as a dust bunny with Shiro. Their home was small, but it was theirs as long as it went undisturbed. They weren’t alone up there, no. The main residence of theirs was the space behind a basket of decorative fake fruit. It was the perfect place for the two of them to cuddle together through the day, and the light filtered through the woven parts of the basket just right to be comfortable. There was also a small stack of cookbooks up there that cast more of a shadow that the two preferred on hot days or when the humans were cooking and caused all the heat to rise up to their little abode.

The day starts like any other, with the gentle rise of the sun and Keith feeling beyond content snuggled with Shiro. Keith doesn’t know what the day will have in store for them, but he knows that it will be perfect since he’s with the dust bunny he’s going to love for the rest of his life.

“Shiro,” Keith prods Shiro with some of his fluff. “We should get up.”

“No,” Shiro mumbles, and Keith feels warmth through all his bits of fluff and dust, not from the sun, but from his love for Shiro’s inability to be a morning dust bunny.

“Too bad, let’s get up, it looks like a lovely day, we need to be awake to appreciate it,” Keith pesters and paps Shiro’s white floof with some of his fuzz.

Shiro continues to grumble, but he does rouse himself from sleep for Keith. “I’m up,” he declares.

“Good boy,” Keith praises because he knows what the phrase does for Shiro, and bumps himself against Shiro in a little dust bunny hug.

“Cute,” Shiro says with affection.

They hear thudding sounds, and Keith knows that means that the humans who live in the house are awake and making their way to the kitchen. Keith assumes this means the two dust bunnies will get the opportunity to watch them hurry through their morning routine of making breakfasts and going to work, unless this is a weekend when the humans are home. Keith doesn’t really know the days of the week or try to keep track because such a thing is trivial for dust bunnies.

Along with the sounds of the humans moving closer to the kitchen, there’s another noise...something loud and grating along the hardwood floors that Keith doesn’t recognize, and that makes him perk up.

“I wonder what that is?” Keith ponders and reluctantly dislodges himself from Shiro when he feels an opportune stirring in the air that lets him glide out from the cover of the basket to the center of the cabinet in order to see the humans’ approach.

Another thing Keith never bothered to learn about was the humans whose house they live in. He was just always comfortable living his quiet life in proximity to them and observing them day-to-day, but he has never bothered to go out of his way to discover anything about them. As a result, he just refers to the humans in the house as Human #1 and Human #2. He knows which one is which, and Shiro refers to them the same way. It’s just easier that way.

Right now, Human #2 is walking into the kitchen and saying something to Human #1. Keith doesn’t understand immediately, but then Human #1 enters and is pulling along a sight that makes fear burst forth through all particles of dust in Keith’s body.

There, in Human #1’s hand was a tall device on wheels that had a tube running out of one side and a clear center barrel that put a chill through Keith. It was a vacuum and not any kind of vacuum, but a Galra brand one. Keith had heard stories about the Galra brand of vacuum from his dad when he was a baby dust bunny about how they were the most vicious type of vacuum that would search out all corners of a house to find the dust bunnies and take them out.

“We have to hide,” Keith immediately informs Shiro. “It’s a Galra vacuum!”

“What?” Shiro gasps. “Hold on, hold on,” Shiro waits to feel some air to catch to glide over to Keith, and when he joins Keith and sees the vacuum, he lets out a gasp of shock.

“What are we going to do?” Keith asks.

“We’ll be okay,” Shiro replies, sliding over a little to be closer to Keith and letting their fluff twirl together a tiny bit. “We’re together, and they won’t come up here. How often have those humans cleaned and never made the effort to look up here? I don’t think they’re particularly adept at cleaning.”

As if to simply clown on Shiro’s words, the two dust bunnies watch as Human #2 points up at the china cabinet and Human #1 turns their head to look up at the place where Keith and Shiro dwell, as if to mark their home as being the place that will be cleaned.

“Oh, no,” Keith squeaks out—though he will never admit to the sound. It seems today is the day that the humans have decided to finally clean up in this neglected space and everything that Shiro and Keith have worked so hard to call their own is under attack by the Galra. Human #1 moves the vacuum, and Keith sees that across the side next to the purple letters that declare it a GALRA brand vacuum, there’s another word for the model: ZARKON.

“Is that…” Shiro starts to ask.

“Yes,” Keith’s fear dissipates and becomes fury instead. The static particles of his dust feel charged. “It’s the top and most powerful Galra vacuum model, Zarkon.”

“It’s okay Keith,” Shiro assures. “We’ll figure something out.” Keith doesn’t reply, he simply waits for a moment to catch a breeze and glide back to the fruit basket before impatiently managing to hop his way up into the basket. “What are you doing?” Shiro asks.

Keith does not reply right away, choosing to rummage around between the fruit as best as he can, but he knows what he needs. It’s up here, he hid it here himself long ago. The one thing his mother left behind for him, given to his dad to pass down—the one line of defense that Shiro and Keith will have against Zarkon. Keith sees it sticking out between the two fake apples he wedged it between but needs help pulling it out. “Shiro, can you come up here?”

“Sure,” Shiro replies, and then he glides as fast as he can up to where Keith is. “Keith,” he starts. “What is this?” 

Ketih sighs. “My mom left this with my dad for me. She apparently knew that if a Galra were to ever come, this would be how to defend against them—especially Zarkon.”

Their little fluffy dust selves get a grip on the sharp shining item and pull, eventually dislodging the thing as they both glide back down to the cabinet from the basket.

“What is it?” Shiro asks.

“It’s a paperclip,” Keith explains. “I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. My dad gave it to me, and I know what I need to do with it if the humans try to use Zarkon up here.”

“Well, you’ve got it at the right time, they’re making their way over here right now!” Shiro’s voice wavers, clearly trying to pat down panic in the face of this surprise attack on their home.

“It’s okay, Shiro, we’re going to defend our home together,” Keith takes a moment to shift closer to Shiro and cuddle up. 

“We are,” Shiro declares, and Keith knows he will never love a dust bunny more. Shiro is the only one for Keith.

They take a defensive stance with the paperclip between them and scoot all the way to the back of the cabinet next to the wall, ready to push the paperclip forward when the opportunity strikes. The humans rummage around in a kitchen cabinet and pull out a small ladder that Human #1 climbs up on. Human #2 hands the other the tube that Keith knows to be a powerful weapon to pull all dust bunnies into, like drawing a moth to light. Keith swears he can see Zarkon looking at them with contempt from where he sits on the ground with false pride.

_ You’re not taking this away from me, _ Keith thinks, right before Human #2 flips a switch on Zarkon, and then the horrible sound of the vacuum fills the air as the opening of the tube lands on the surface of the cabinet. The tube makes a slow trek across the top, small bits of stray debris getting pulled into its suck, and then as it nears where Shiro and Keith are hiding, they both know what needs to be done. 

Waiting until the right moment, Keith yells, and the two dust bunnies use their little fuzzy strength to thrust the paperclip forward and watch it go shooting into the tube. There’s a terrifying moment where nothing happens and Keith worries that they have failed, but then Zarkon emits an awful whining sound and shuts down. 

They did it, Keith thinks, and then he looks over to Shiro, but the joy dies and he gasps at what he sees. Part of Shiro’s fluff had been caught in the paperclip and was taken away with it as it had been consumed by Zarkon.

“Shiro!” Keith cries and shuffles over to his dust bunny mate. “Shiro, are you okay?” Keith cradles him in his fuzz and holds him close. “Shiro.”

Shiro gazes up from where he’s held in Keith’s fluffy bits and finally speaks. “We did it. We’re safe.”

Keith lets out a gasp. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

“I’m feeling great because I’m with you,” Shiro tells him.

Giving an exasperated sigh, Keith shakes a little as he pulls Shiro closer. “Stop worrying me, old fluff.”

Shiro laughs. “I haven’t heard that one in a while.”

“Yeah, well, you need to be reminded of it,” Keith huffs.

“I love you,” Shiro says, so simply, so easily, it makes Keith’s dust and fluff alight with endless affection for this dust bunny.

“I love you, too,” Keith tells him back, and the two cuddle close, safe with the knowledge that they defeated Zarkon together and kept their home safe.

\---

“What happened?” Keith asks Shiro as he climbs back down from the ladder and looks into the vacuum’s attachment. They had decided to use the weekend to do some proper spring cleaning and finally break out the top-of-the-line vacuum that Keith’s dad had gifted him for their wedding anniversary a month ago. 

“I don’t know,” Shiro shrugs. “I couldn’t see on top of the cabinet, I figured I could just put the attachment up there and it would clean up all the dust and stuff. Seems that didn’t happen.”

Keith scoffs. “What’s the point in being a fancy vacuum if it can’t even clean. Did something get caught in it? What's up there?”

“Let me see,” Shiro hands the vacuum back over to Keith who examines it as well. Shiro goes to the top of the small ladder and gazes up at what is on top of the cabinet. Behind the stack of neglected cookbooks and a fake fruit basket that was gifted by one of Keith’s uncles, Shiro doesn’t see anything up there that could have been the culprit. He’s about to climb back down when he spots something peculiar in the back of the cabinet that he almost misses.

There are two, well, large dust bunnies that in almost any other case Shiro would probably grab a rag to capture and clean up, but...there’s something about these two. One is a large conglomerate of lighter dust and fibers, and it looks like there’s a feather from a pillow in it that sticks out the top. Something about it makes Shiro unconsciously pat down his own white bangs. Next to it, the other dust bunny is smaller and made up of darker material. This one appears to have some fur that looks suspiciously like Kosmo’s darker black dog fur mixed in, which confuses Shiro as Kosmo lives at Keith’s parents’ house. 

Shiro doesn’t know what, but the sight of the two dust bunnies looking as though they are clinging to each other makes him want to climb back down and envelope Keith in a hug, so he goes ahead and does that, wrapping his arms around Keith, who is still trying to figure out what’s wrong with the vacuum.

“Hey, big guy, what’s up?” Keith asks.

“Nothing,” Shiro muffles into Keith’s hair. “Love you.”

Keith chuckles. “Love you, too. So, did you find anything up there?”

Shiro pauses. “No, it’s actually pretty clean up there. I don’t think we need to worry about it getting dusty or anything. Anyway, who cares about the top of a cabinet?”

“If you say so,” Keith says. “Well, since we already failed at our spring cleaning plan, what do you want to do?” 

“I’ve got an idea,” Shiro replies and picks Keith’s up in his arms. As he carries his husband out of the kitchen, both giggling, Shiro can’t help but give one more glance up at the top of the china cabinet.

**Author's Note:**

> let's talk cursed and soft sheith: [twitter](https://twitter.com/pushclouds)


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